Any news you read and even some of the people you talk to have/will indicate some stereotypical ideas, opinions and assumptions that are used to label Africa as a negative place to be. But for those that have been to the continent or frequently visit the place, you can generally agree with my believe that Africa has great potential in it and the continent is not as bad as many perceive it to be, After all, did we not host the 2010 world cup successfully? And through South Africa, the world saw how beautiful Africa is and the potential that the continent carries.
I argue that in order for us to move forward and remain stable amongst the challenges that we face, we need great and visionary leaders to help us achieve that potential. This leads me to my concern, how can we remain stable and grow as an economy when we entirely depend on agriculture? Yes, some countries earn some foreign income from tourism, fishing and even mining but no one can disagree that a lot of sub Saharan Africa is highly dependent in agriculture, and as population growth and industrial agriculture seem to take place, the continent needs new avenues to generate income for the small scale farmers who have high dependency on agriculture. Recently Kenya introduced tea picking machines which I believe will have a positive impact Kenya’s labour force. Surely, they were long overdue and I believe that this is a good step forward as we need to embrace industrial agriculture.
It is through industrial agriculture that we can free the labour and allow for enough time to civilize and educate our population. That way we can target a move to service based economies. I believe that the small scale farmers that derive their living from agriculture are prone to manipulation from those that are knowledgeable and have political power. This is where I argue that we need to invest in a sound education system and also embrace in technology if we are to compete in the global economy. If we continue to depend on agriculture, soon the land will run out and we will continue to have a poor majority, which doesn’t aid the progress of our dear continent. And in the end we will continue to have the same question marks.
very true..I m all for quality (not quantity) education and you raise a very valid point. we are not getting quality education, hands-on learning which is what economies require for a productive workforce..
ReplyDeleteAlso remember that Africa's biggest problem is International Trade.. we have enough resources to not have to depend on outside help, we just need to manage them better.. If African countries can learn to trade with one another, we are headed somewhere..Kenya does a poor job even trading within the country!! when there is a surplus of food on one side of the country, and people are starving on the other side, we are not having a conversation with one another. these conversations need to start happening like your are doing on this blog...